Methodology
The survey conducted by DATAQUEST during the fourth week of April 2001 had a
participation of 118 companies comprising IT companies (industry) and 42 non-IT
companies (enterprise). The sample was a mix of medium and large firms.
The firms in the industry segment ranged from biggies like HCL Infosystems,
H-P, Samsung Electronics to smaller firms like SVAM and Organic Software. The
enterprise segment included Hero-Honda, DCM Shriram, Daewoo Telecom, Usha
International, Alstom and Titan.
The survey aimed at understanding the value Indian industry attaches to
products being churned out en-masse by the informal IT training segment. It also
had the mandate to find out the recruiters’ most preferred IT training
institutes, both in terms of qualifications of a prospective employee and for
their corporate training programs.
Based on inputs sent in by the HR heads of these 118 companies, DATAQUEST
examined the difference in perception between the industry and the enterprise
segments.
While the first part of the survey report on the recruiters’ perspective is
being carried in this issue, the findings on corporate training will be
published in the next issue of the magazine, June 15, 2001.
Finance, HR are top recruiters among non-IT departments
Finance,
human resources, sales and marketing emerged as the top non-IT departments that
recruit employees with IT skills. Production and support got a comparatively
lower rank, followed by other divisions.
Enterprises more open to institute passouts
Enterprises turned out to be more receptive than industry
when it came to recruiting passouts from private sector IT training institutes.
60%
of the respondents from the IT industry said less than 20% of their current
employees were taken in with IT training institute diplomas. In contrast, 45% of
enterprise respondents were found recruiting those who had diplomas and degrees
from training institutes.
14% of respondents from the industry said the number of
employees with IT training institute qualifications was between 20%-40%, as
compared to a figure of 24% forwarded by respondents from enterprises.
26% of respondents from industry and 31% from enterprises said the number of
IT training institute passouts in their firms was more than 40%. That is a
healthy number, and puts enterprises on top again.
IT skills help in non-IT jobs
During
recruitment, IT training does make a difference. This is borne out by the fact
that 89% of industry firms and 95% of enterprise firms in the survey said that
knowledge of IT skill-sets did matter during recruitment for non-IT functions.
Enterprises are more receptive to recruiting IT institute passouts than industry
firms.
South India Has the Most Training Centers
To determine the strength of top IT coimpanies across geographical divides in
the country, as also to ascertain the market potential of different regions,
DATAQUEST asked five major IT training vendors–NIIT, Aptech, STG, CMC, LCC–to
furnish details on their strength in 16 major Indian cities, stretching across
four regions. SSI, a key player in the market, declined to participate in the
survey and was, therefore, left out of the reckoning.
This threw up interesting results. South India is the hub of IT training
activity. This is followed by the North and West. East India is the region with
the minimum number of centers. The numbers furnished indicate the number of
centers in the particular city.
This also collaborates another survey conducted by DATAQUEST –the Salary
Survey published in the May 15, 2001 issue–which had shown that a significant
number of IT professionals were from the south of the country. It is observed
that each of the institutes is strongest in its own home turf.
Mumbai-based Aptech is strong in its presence in the West, and also has a
good foothold in the South. Delhi-based CMC and STG have maximum presence in
their home turf, in the northern part of the country. NIIT has a strong foothold
in the South besides its home turf in the North. Calcutta-based LCC has a
significant presence in the east.
NORTH: This is the home turf of NIIT, CMC and STG. All these players have a strong presence here. Aptech too has a significant presence with 78 centers in the 4 cities of New Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow. LCC has the least presence in this region. Delhi accounts for the bulk of centers in the North. Chandigarh takes the second spot. |
SOUTH: South India is truly the hub of the Indian IT training industry. With India’s IT centers, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai in this region, this region accounted for maximum number of training centers. NIIT, Aptech have a very strong presence in this region. NIIT emerges as the biggest player in Chennai in terms of centers, while in Bangalore, Aptech has the highest number of centers. |
EAST: The eastern part of the country has the least amount of centers as compared to the other regions. NIIT, Aptech and LCC are among the major players in this region. Calcutta accounts for a majority of centers in the East. Guwahati has the least number of centers as compared to the other three cities in this region. |
WEST: It is the home ground of Aptech, which has a strong presence. NIIT is also a major player here. LCC, CMC have a less prominent presence in this region. The commercial capital, Mumbai, as expected, has a majority of the centers. Pune, with a significant number of educational institutions bags the second place. |
Diplomas are not high on the recruiters’ list
While
the perception survey showed that NIIT is the most favored institute for
recruitment, followed by Aptech, SSI, STG, CMC, CDAC and IBM, in that order, a
significant 26% of industry said they did not consider diploma-holders at all
for job openings. Enterprises, however, do not have such a block.
Quality of training tops preference list
Asked
to pinpoint the reasons for preference in recruitment of students from IT
training institutes–quality stood out as the single-most important parameter
that employers consider during the process of recruitment. It was observed that
while 27% enterprise recruiters were concerned about the stability of the person
being recruited, none of the industry respondents seemed to be worried about the
issue. Sudesh Jain, assistant V-P, Transport Corporation of India, noted that
stability was indeed an issue for his organization, since many of the people
whom he recruited from top-notch training institutes had not stayed in the firm
beyond a few months.